


Malicious Mischief

by Eireann, mandassina



Series: Dreams [7]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Gen, Plotting, Troublemaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 22:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30146457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eireann/pseuds/Eireann, https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandassina/pseuds/mandassina
Summary: After she gets word of the explosion on Jupiter Station, Empress Hoshi Sato's celebratory mood becomes nostalgic. "Max had always been sweet and attentive, but...Jon had always been more fun. And honestly, seeing where it got her, she wasn't sure she wouldn't choose fun over love if she had it to do again…"A 'Missing Scene' from 'Dreamers of the Day'.
Series: Dreams [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/926886
Collections: Reed's Armory Collection





	Malicious Mischief

**Author's Note:**

> Star Trek and all its intellectual property belongs to Paramount/CBS. No infringement intended, no money made.

**Malicious Mischief**

_Why the hell would Trip advance Reed to power? He hated the guy’s guts on_ Enterprise _–_ _they used to amuse Archer no end, he called them his 'pit bulls on leashes'. Sometimes, he even did things to provoke them into going after one another._

 _The Empress pours herself another glass of cold, fresh juice and eventually settles into a chair on the balcony. Leaning back and looking up at the stars, for just a few moments she lets her turbulent thoughts of the future give way to nostalgic memories of the past. She thinks back to a time and a place when things were, well, honestly, not **simpler** , exactly, but at least not quite so enormous and with fewer, though no less potentially devastating, personal consequences, when she was just Lieutenant Sato, Chief Communications Officer of the _ISS Enterprise, _and the captain's woman._

 _Poor Max, he was a little too good to live long in this world. Even after she made the move to his bed, he tolerated her continuing affection for Archer. No one could ever have imagined the opportunity that one kindly allowance would provide her, but when Jon recovered the_ Defiant _, she was ready to make her move._

 _Max had always been sweet and attentive, but she'd never really believed, until the dying moments of the_ Enterprise _when he took the helm to give her and the rest of the crew a chance to escape, that he actually might have **loved** her. Jon, despite his arrogance, paranoia, and fondness for that vicious rottweiler of his, had always been more fun._

_And honestly, seeing where it got her, she wasn't sure she wouldn't choose fun over love if she had it to do again…_

=/\=

"You're _so_ childish," Hoshi berated him from her post in the doorway as she peered anxiously up and down the corridor. If they were caught she'd just say she was following orders. It would be enough to keep her out of any official trouble, but everyone knew she and the commander were as close to friends as any two people could be in the Imperial Fleet, and for that, they would all (correctly) assume she was a willing participant in Archer's nasty little practical joke.

"Just keep an eye out, will you?" Commander Archer demanded with irritation as he fiddled with the circuits under the auxiliary security workstation just off the armory. "I was able to put the surveillance cameras trained on this station into a repeating loop from Tucker's station in engineering via remote access from the bridge, so they're not recording us; but there's no telling when Reed might decide to pay a personal visit. I tell you, that little troll's diligence is admirable, but sometimes it's a regular pain in the ass."

"I just don't understand why you're doing this," Hoshi grumbled.

It was true, she didn't understand Jon's devilish streak, but sometimes it was entertaining, and who knew when it might prove profitable? She was running no fewer than six different betting pools on if and when the chief engineer and the head of security would resort to physical violence, what weapons they would employ, who would win, whether the loser would survive, and what injuries they would sustain. Quite a few people expected Reed to blind Tucker permanently and completely if they ever finally had it out, which would be in keeping with the little bastard's cruel streak; and, since a blind engineer on a battleship is – as she'd once overheard Tucker himself say about one of his own people – ‘as useless as tits on a bull’, there were some side bets going as to whether Phlox would space the man alive or have the mercy to put him down with a dose of barbiturates first. She was offering long odds on the physician putting him to sleep, thinking that the only people betting in favor of _that_ had never had first-hand experience of the slimy Denobulan bastard's bedside manner. Having an idea of what might cause the next eruption of hostilities between Tucker and Reed could help her set odds that were more favorable to herself.

"Because it _amuses_ me, and _Enterprise_ isn't equipped with a pit for dog fights," Archer explained with a tone of malicious mischief in his voice. "And they make it _so_ easy. Does anybody know _why_ they hate each other so much?"

"Not that I've ever heard," Hoshi replied, suddenly wondering how she could calculate the odds on something like that and whether she could ever get one or the other of them to reveal the true root of their animosity. She knew immediately that it would have to be Tucker. He knew she'd never have him because of his face, and he resented her for it; but at least he talked to her. Unless they had to communicate regarding a matter of ship's business, if Reed paid her any attention at all it was only to stare at her with the look of a hungry wolf and lick his lips. "Are you finished yet?"

"Almost," Archer said, "but don't worry. Reed's loyal to me. He might be pissed if he finds me messing with his equipment, but he'll never do anything about it."

"Really?" Hoshi asked curiously. "What do you have on him?"

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know?"

The fact was, Hoshi actually _did_ know a _lot_ more than she had ever let on, though she was only now realizing that she should have calculated what she knew into the odds she was offering on the potential fight. Max had warned her to be on the lookout for any incoming communication from certain comm signals or from a guy named Harris who apparently had it in for him for reasons Max either didn't know or didn't want to disclose. So, when an encrypted call came in for Commander Archer from a Mr. Harris in San Francisco, she decided to 'randomly' eavesdrop on the call. It was part of her regular duties to 'randomly' monitor incoming and outgoing calls for security purposes, and being able to decrypt and listen in on coded communications in live time was one of the skills that got her promoted to senior comms office relatively quickly.

Harris had told Archer that Reed had been ordered to support him in any action he might take to overthrow his commander and that something unique to his MACO training would make it impossible for him to disobey, however much he might wish to, but he hadn't really explained it. Thinking about it now, Hoshi was almost certain Jon had tested Harris's promise a couple of times by deliberately giving orders he knew Reed would find unacceptable, and yet the man had obeyed, albeit snarling and gnashing his teeth and bitching about it the whole time. In retrospect, a man who had discovered the secret of _literally commanding_ another's loyalty, simply by making it an order rather than having the superior officer go to all that troublesome effort of _earning_ it, should have been smart enough to realize that there was always the chance an enterprising comms officer might listen in and take the information to the captain in expectation of some reward.

Perhaps Harris had a plan for playing both ends against the middle if Archer ever did stage a mutiny. After all, if Reed was loyal enough to Harris to be loyal to Jon on Harris's say so, then couldn't Harris order Reed to turn on Jon at some point?

At any rate, she hadn't shared what she knew with Max, at least not yet. Why would she? Her position as the captain's woman wasn't exactly precarious, but his position as captain might be. Allegiances were shifting all the time in the Fleet, in the Empire, and right on the bridge of the _Enterprise._ It was a fact of life, and knowing a secret about their Head of Security and the captain's SiC could be useful someday, especially if she wanted her star to continue rising even if the captain's began to decline. If the moment ever came when it was better for her to have Max know about Archer and Reed's strange alliance, she'd tell him, but until then, it was her secret.

"There now," Archer said, finally snapping the panel back into place and standing to dust himself off. "Next time he comes down here to watch the surveillance feeds, every camera will be trained on the wrong station. When he starts investigating how his board got scrambled, it will all go right back to Tucker."

"One of these days, you're going to provoke them to the point that they kill each other," Hoshi warned as they skulked out of the armory and hurried for the turbo-lift. "How will you explain that, Jon, losing one of the Empire's best engineers and one of her top security officers over some stupid practical joke?"

"It'll never happen," Archer confidently dismissed her concern.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because after the 'accident' that almost blinded Tucker," Hoshi didn't miss the quotes he marked in the air with his fingers and wondered what he knew, "I ordered Reed to make sure our chief engineer survives this deployment at any cost."

"He could just disobey you," Hoshi said, stepping out of the lift and heading for the mess hall. And privately considering how this was going to affect the betting pool – if it was true, those who had their money on Tucker dying in a confrontation between the two had already effectively lost their money.

Smirking and looking gleefully smug with his secret, he said, "Actually, no, he can't."

"What do you mean?"

"I've said as much as I'm going to," he told her, and she knew she wasn’t going to get anything more out of him about it, not that she needed to.

Hoshi always had the feeling Jon liked her more than he liked most people, but she wasn't unambitious. She'd already dumped him when the opportunity to be the captain's woman arose, and he'd be a fool to think she wouldn't use any information she got from him about Reed to improve her own position, either independently, or through Captain Forrest. Jon himself might not be in any hurry to advance to the next level of power, but it was Human nature to always be thinking about _someday,_ and she didn't expect him to give away his secrets to anyone who might use them against him when he got there.

"You know, Reed would know better than anyone just how much damage you can do to a man _without_ killing him," Hoshi pointed out, sounding every bit as smug as Archer had.

He stopped in mid-stride and turned on her snarling, but just as he took a deep breath, presumably to blast her for irritating him, he stopped, cocked his head and slid his eyes sideways in an expression that was something _more_ than thoughtful. Then with a slight nod, he conceded. "That's a good point. I'll be sure to have a word with him."

"But, Tucker could still just as likely kill Reed," Hoshi murmured as they got in line for their meal.

"He doesn't have the stomach for it," Jon whispered back.

"I think, when it comes to the man who tried to kill him, he could make an exception."

"He wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight with Reed," Archer told her. "He's a mean-tempered bastard, but he doesn't have the killer instinct. Keep an eye on internal sensors and let me know when Reed goes to confront Tucker. I don't want to miss the show."

Hoshi's mind was racing as she calculated new odds in light of the information Jon had shared with her this afternoon. She thought he was grossly underestimating the engineer, but if it was true that he had effectively hamstrung the security chief, she could adjust the payouts offered to encourage people to place losing bets. All she had to do was think of a plausible reason to bet _against_ Reed. Tucker _was_ taller and longer limbed and possibly _just_ enough younger to have superior stamina.

"You are _so_ childish," Hoshi chided again, rolling her eyes.

"Nah, mostly I'm just bored."

=/\=

The much anticipated fight had never happened. They'd recovered the _Defiant_ before Reed's next monthly systems check, then he'd been injured by the Gorn booby-trap. For reasons no one could ever explain, none other than Tucker himself had carried the wounded security officer into Sickbay - or, more accurately, dragged him there by one arm and then threatened Phlox into treating him.

Then she had drugged Archer and had him and that filthy little Vulcan rebel and a few others thrown into the brig.

As soon as her position was solid among the crew, Travis had advised her to forgive the debts of all the 'losers' who had bet on the Reed-Tucker fight to occur later in the mission and to refund the winnings of those whose predicted date for the conflict had already come and gone without incident. It went against the grain for her to forgive a debt and physically pained her to give fairly won money away, but she could see the sense in doing so to earn some goodwill among the crew.

Phlox she'd reluctantly retained at his post in Sickbay. Since his kind only hibernated for a few weeks once a year and didn't need a regular sleep period, she'd kept him on duty and under guard round the clock, making Reed's survival his top priority. Reed was by far the Empire's top weapon's specialist. Even serving full time on an Imperial battleship, he'd been credited with inventing most of the Empire's new arsenal over the past half-decade and dramatically improving those weapons he had not yet made obsolete. Also, of course, the idea of the Agony Booth had initially been his, and it was already a fearsome instrument of control among Starfleet’s crews. It was Hoshi's hope that, if she could free him from Archer's influence, he would ally himself with her.

Conveniently, Archer's behavior became increasingly erratic in the brig. He started mumbling to himself and brawling with invisible opponents. When Hoshi finally ordered a forced physical examination – forced because Archer hated aliens so much he wouldn't have allowed Phlox to touch him otherwise – it was discovered that tertiary syphilis had eaten away so much of his brain that he was frothing-at-the-mouth mad. While the infection could be cured with a course of the oldest and most basic antibiotics, he'd never recover from the damage that had been done. Why he'd let such a simple disease go for so long that it had effectively killed him would never be known for certain, but those who knew Archer were comfortable assuming that it had something to do with the fact that he'd spent his entire career on ships with alien CMOs. His rabid hatred for aliens wouldn't allow him to seek treatment from the head physician and his ego wouldn't allow him to accept help from a subordinate Human medic.

It was a stupid way to die, to be sure, but by the time it was discovered, Archer was too far gone to understand when Hoshi berated him for it. So instead, she had herself tested and treated, ordered Jon to be treated to stop the advance of the disease and confined to comfortable quarters, and, to generate a little goodwill with some of the women she'd leapfrogged over on her rise to power, arranged for Erika Hernandez and a few others to be discreetly informed of Archer's situation so that they could take proper precautions.

A few weeks after her formal installation as Empress, she'd arranged a dignified, intimate ceremony to have Archer put down. With a brain like Swiss cheese, he was useless to the Empire. He had no civilian family or friends to look after him, and owing to his extreme paranoia and uber-violent tendencies, no veterans' care facility in the Empire would have him. She had arranged for people to work with Jon in his lucid moments to prepare him for the ceremony and find out who he would want to be present, and when, at the last moment, he had lost his nerve and started begging for his life, she'd ordered the physician in charge of the procedure – a Human physician – to administer a paralytic so that he couldn't speak. Once he was paralyzed, the restraints were no longer needed, so she had them removed.

When death is all a man has left to look forward to, it should be dignified. When the death of Jonathan Archer was reported, no mention of his mutiny was made. He was hailed as a hero for his courage and determination in recovering the _Defiant_ , and when 'untreatable injuries from his final mission left him incapable of returning to duty in any useful capacity,' the final footage his life showed him 'greeting death stoically and with dignity'. Those few who had been close to Archer in life knew what had really happened, and the small mercy Hoshi had shown him in death won her several allies among them.

Reed had not yet recovered enough to attend the euthanasia ceremony, and her duties as Empress had soon made Hoshi too busy to keep track of him. He'd quickly slid off her sensors and if asked, she would have said she assumed he had been reassigned in due course once he was adequately recovered. It wasn't until he re-emerged at the side of a certain blue-eyed bastard and with his lackey, Em Gomez, trailing along, all three of them now wearing general's stars, that she thought again about inviting him into an alliance with her, and by then, it was far, far too late to negotiate favorable terms.

=/\=

_The Empress stands briskly and with a smile. The time for nostalgia is over, it's all about the future now._

_Once again, the Wheel of Fortune (helped a bit by Commodore Tucker, this time) has turned, and by some miracle, she is still on top._

_Whether she allies herself with Tucker and/or Reed or with some other power who has not yet stepped into the light, she won't make the same mistake twice. When she's ready to take on an ally, it will be on her terms or not at all._

_She's through being a figurehead and puppet for the dark forces behind her throne. She is Her Most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Imperius of Tellar, Regina Andor, Hoshi Sato, and from this moment on, she's damned well going to act like it._

**_The End._ **

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews make us very happy. If you've enjoyed this, please leave one!


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